Afghan Economy, Social Structures Destroyed by Taliban

Afghan Economy, Social Structures Destroyed by Taliban

Mark Clouse October 5, 2021

Afghanistan experiencing serious crisis, socio-economic collapse looming: Josep Borrell

From www.bignewsnetwork.com
2021-10-03 17:37:00

Excerpt:

Brussels [Belgium], October 3 (ANI): EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said Afghanistan is facing a “serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming” that will prove to be dangerous for the region and international security.

“Afghanistan is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming, which would be dangerous for Afghans, the region and international security,” Borrell wrote in a blog post.

Borrell said that there are many signs that the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse.

“For instance, we have seen the formation of an interim government that is neither inclusive nor representative. And we have reports that women and girls are excluded from schools and universities, which goes against initial assurances from the Taliban,” he wrote.

Read Full Article

Russian Military Accused of Rights Violations by Central African Republic

Mark Clouse October 5, 2021

Central African Republic accuses Russians of conflict abuses

From nationalpost.com
2021-10-03 17:55:41

Excerpt:

BANGUI — Russian military instructors committed rights abuses in Central African Republic (CAR) during clashes with rebels this year, a government report said on Sunday, bolstering evidence produced in a United Nations report in June.

The army – backed by U.N. peacekeepers, Russian and Rwandan troops – has been battling rebels seeking to overturn a December vote in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera was declared the winner. Fighting has been fierce: in January rebels launched an assault on the capital Bangui that was repelled after a long gunfight.

Read Full Article

Ron DeSantis Announces his Wife has Breast Cancer

Ivo Fysic October 5, 2021

Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

From feedproxy.google.com
2021-10-04 16:08:26
Dr. Susan Berry
Excerpt:

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced Monday his wife, Casey, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I am saddened to report that Florida’s esteemed First Lady and my beloved wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer,” DeSantis said in a statement, adding:

As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as First Lady. As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will have not only … my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state.

“Casey is a true fighter, and she will never, never, never give up,” the governor said.

Ron and Casey DeSantis have three children: Madison, age 4;…

Read Full Article

42 Percent of Democrats Think Covid-19 Hospitalization Rate is Over 50 Percent

Ivo Fysic October 4, 2021

It seems that both Republicans and Democrats grossly over-estimate the percentage of people who might get hospitalized as a result of a Covid-19 infection. Democrats are 800 percent worst than Republicans as far as htting the mark, but Republicans still performed extremely porrly, to say the least.

The average percentages given for Covid-19 hospitalization have beeen between 1-5 percent. That figure is significantly lower than what self-identifying Demorats and Republicans think the percentage is.

53$ of Democrats believe the hopsitalization rate is over 30%, while 30% of Republicans believe the hospitalization rate is 30% or higher. Only 18% of Democrats think the hospitalization rate is within that 1-5 percent margin, while 42 percent of Republicans think the hospitalization rate is within that 1-5 percent margin. The majority of Republicans, 63 percent, believe the hospitalization rate is 20 percent or lower, a far cry from the Democrats in error, but a far cry from accurate as well.

Gallop: Both Republicans And Democrats Are Wildly Overstating Risks From COVID-19

From www.science20.com
2021-09-28 13:36:12
Hank Campbell
Excerpt:

While polls can never tell us how people behave – on polls, even during the height of the anti-vax movement in California, they denied being anti-vaccine, they were pro-choice, and simply chose to not give more kids vaccines than the rest of the US combined – they can tell us what people believe with decent accuracy, That’s important also. A new Gallop poll says both groups believe wrongly in what COVID-19 may mean to society.

In one area, the wrongness is overwhelmingly on the side of the Democrats, by almost double. 41% of Democrats believe that 50% of unvaccinated people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 when the real number is still under 1%. A still high yet relatively less problematic 22% of Republicans get that wrong.

Who got the right answer by a wide margin? Republicans. 16% recognize that the hospitalization rate is under 1%, an 800% better result than Democrats.

Read Full Article

Rolling Power Outages and Factory Shutdowns Rock China

Parker Davis October 4, 2021

China’s Communist Party is facing another rebuke of its mandate of heaven claim on authority with the increasing occurance of power outages and factory shutdowns that have been occuring and, as of the writing of this article, are trending towards being more, not less, frequent.

The problem stems from the rising cost of coal and the nation’s dependence on the envirnmentally damaging source of energy. There may be other undelying causes such as the growing youth movment of ‘do nothing’ that has formed as a backlash to the ever-increasing demands that are being made on workers’ lives, professional or manual, that seems to be another trend happening in China today.

Still, the buk of the factor behind the rising power outages and factory shutdowns still appears to be mostly the rising cost of coal.

China Hit by Wave of Power Rationing, Outages, And Factory Closures — Radio Free Asia

From www.rfa.org
2021-09-28 13:27:33

Excerpt:

China is facing ongoing power shortages in its industrial northeast triggering a wave of factory closures, with traffic lights, residential elevators, and mobile phone coverage also affected in some cities.

Power rationing is already in place in more than 10 provinces including the northeastern province of Jilin, amid soaring coal prices.

Jilin provincial governor Han Jun called for more channels to secure coal supplies from Russia, Mongolia, and Indonesia, while dispatching teams to secure supplies from China’s northern region of Inner Mongolia.

According to an estimate by Goldman Sachs, as much as 44 percent of China’s industrial activity has been hit by power shortages, leading analysts to cut their 2021 GDP growth forecast for China to 7.8 percent from an earlier estimate of 8.2 percent.

Some shops and hotels in the northeast were lit by candlelight, while homes went without power and malls shut early, amid growing concern that power shortages could also affect water supplies.

Video posted to the social media platform Weibo on Sept. 27 showed traffic queuing in darkness in one city, with captions that quoted Chinese leader Xi Jinping as calling for greater efforts to protect power supplies to ordinary people and keep the generators turning.

The worst-affected areas are mostly concentrated in smaller cities and rural areas, according to media reports.

“The reason for the power outage is that coal is more expensive this year, and in previous years it was imported into China from abroad,” Jilin resident Wang Fengxia said. “So they can’t afford it this year.”

Read Full Article

France Wants America Out of Europe

Paul Collier October 4, 2021

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, is telling his European comtemporaries that it’s time to ween itself off American power. The embattled President is in the midst of an election he most likely will win but might potentially lose, and he’s just seen a major arms deal between his country and Australia go the way of the dodo bird after the United States essentially gave Australia for free something better or at least on par with what France would have been paid to deliver, submarines.

Now, Macron is moving to move Europe away from America and into itself. And don’t think a new European nationalism is not possible if and when all of Europe suddenly perceives the US is no longer a reliable defensive partner. When faceed with the external threats without, the people of Europe may find a new european nationalism convenient to the perceived predicament. For that to happen, America has to geet out of the way, whether it wants to or not.

Macron says Europeans need to stop being naive and assert independence from the United States

From www.washingtonpost.com
2021-09-28 16:27:00
By Rick Noack
Excerpt:

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europeans to “come out of their naivete” on the world stage and assert their independence from the United States, sending one of the strongest signals to date that the diplomatic crisis prompted by a disrupted submarine deal could have long-lasting repercussions on transatlantic relations.

Speaking alongside the Greek prime minister Tuesday at a news conference to unveil a major Franco-Greek defense deal, Macron said the Europeans should make themselves “respected.”

“For a bit over 10 years now, the United States has been very focused on itself and has strategic interests that are being reoriented towards China and the Pacific,” he said.

Read Full Article

Mosque Bombing in Kabul Leaves Many Dead, More Injured

Mark Clouse October 4, 2021

Deadly explosion at Eidgah mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan

From www.dailytelegraph.com.au
2021-10-03 21:57:17

Excerpt:

A blast has killed several people in a crowd outside the entrance of the Eidgah Mosque during a funeral service in central Kabul.

A bomb blast at the entrance of a mosque in Kabul has killed civilians.

Thought to be a roadside bomb near the Eidgah mosque gates, the explosion took place during a memorial service being held for the mother of the Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

People in bloodied clothing were seen arriving at the nearby Kabul Emergency Hospital on Sunday.

Three suspects were arrested in connection with the blast, a Taliban spokesman said.

Read Full Article

How DNC Hunger Artsts Are Seeking to Make Facebook Pay for January 6th

Paul Collier October 4, 2021

A Facebook whistelblower will claim the company failed to take multiple warnings seriously leading up the events surrounding the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Facebook plans on getting in front of the story that seems to have legs and seems to be building negative momentum against the Silicon Valley leviathon. They will attack the credibility of the whistleblower and claim they knew full well the science and did all they could to minimize the damage.

The whole affair is also a symbol of the cycles of moral clout public scalping Facebook itself has enabled, and is now on the ‘being scalped’ end of the latest public moral clouting. Here’s how we got here and where we’re going next:

Facebook chose to advance a particular narrative after the January 6th Capital Hill Incident that is sometimes called a Riot, sometimes called a Protest Gone Bad, sometimes called an Insurrection, and sometimes called literally Apocolypse itself. Facebook chose to go with the Apoclypse Iself narrative and treated any information that might be shared that might offer a counter to the Apoclype narrative, one that would lead the non-poliitcally engaged to assume that a man dressed a buffalo almost single-handeldy brought down the American state.

Nevermind those ARs, boys, mind the buffalo head men. They can just walk into the Capital and boom, all those military advantages just evaporate before the might of the buffalo-headed men.

Well, that decision to throw in with the Apocolypse version of “The Incident of Jaunary 6th on the Capitol Hill” might potentially backfire. You see, leading up to the event that almost lead to literally wholesale Mad Max Anarchy across the American lands themselves, Facebook allowed people to stream, stream, stream, and share, and group-up, and organize, and, and, and…..

I am assuming you are getting the picture here. The very sicophants of the cult of the DNC these Facebook execus were placating AFTER “the incident” are now using Facebook’s own characterization of the event through what it has censored after the event, action that demonstrates, in this writer’s opinion, not only an advocation of the Apocolyptic narrative, but a coercive enforcement of that assumption on its users. Any expression that challenged the DNC official narrative of “the incident” would be censored, and if the user repeated this offense, the user themselves woud be removed.

And now, that hardball approach to post-1-6 has left Facebook vulnerable to the same people they chose to enable, the rabid adherents of the DNC party line, which, at this point in the political discouse, represents that vast overwhelming majority of the ‘left,’ even the so-called anarchist left, who seem more inclined than ever to cheer on corporate censorship and massive state spending bills that are thousands of pages long and will produce tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of regulatory code through which the interests of the few will be protected from the liberty of the many.

But, it might give some people here and there some sugar to get them through the apocolypse, so, that’s good, and that’s about the best the ‘left’ will ever get from the international party they seem so willing to serve, the DNC.

Be careful the mosnters you create, though, DNC, and don’t be so trusting of the models your deep learning machines are showing you to follow. We humans will not be pinned down by machines and you’re soon to discover this truth. Here, Facebook’s machines did not protect the executives from the beasts they were creating, the people that thrive on public scalpings for their primary source of power, the acolytes of the DNC.

They will pick your bones apart in a second if it means moral clout as defined by the DNC.

This unquenchable hunger, the acolytes of the DNC as a spirt, seeks revenge to offer it but a moment of rest from the burden of such desires. The buffalo-headed men are rotting in jail, even as we speak, and culturally, they are mostly buffoons and mad, but inept, terrorists who sought to restore the KKK to world power once again. The vanquished buffalo-headed men are now just leftist menes floating freely on this same Facebook platform.

The hunger artists in reverse have a new delicious dish to eat, one which could afford them even more power to strip the bones off the latest opportunity for public moral clout scalping. their source of sustenance. That dish, of course, is Facebook, and a whistleblower is about to come forward and declare that Facebook was told it was enabling the January 6th Apocolype but did nothing about it.

Facebook is seeking to pre-empt the damage by going on the offenseive against the whisteblower before they ever speak. Facebook aims to discredit the whisteblower’s claims in advance by asserting they did all they could and followed the science that suggested what they should do next (what their deep learning think-tanks were ‘suggesting’).

Perhaps the machines predicted more placation after the election was declared for Biden than actually occored. Who knows? Either way, schadenfreude would not be inappropriate here for so many of us hemmed in by the new morality of the DNC as upheld by Silicon Valley, in this case. Watching the suits of Facebook having to face their own moral puritanicalism from people who have moral clout than them will surely be a glorious thing to behold, to a point, but when the kids make up (and they will) it will result in at least a short-term bad outcome for the rest of us, even more governance placed in the hands, directly, of the most active of moral clout activists, the hunger artists of the DNC.

Facebook goes on offense ahead of whistleblower revelations on Capitol riot role

From www.independent.co.uk
2021-10-03 21:49:04
Sheila Flynn
Excerpt:

Facebook was on the offense this weekend as the clock ticked down to a company whistleblower coming forward with revelations about the social network.

The whistleblower is due to reveal their identity on news programme 60 Minutes on Sunday. The former employee, who has turned over thousands of potentially damaging documents regarding company policy, is expected to allege that Facebook had dismantled security protections too soon after the 2020 election, contributing to the fallout and Capitol riots; disregarded or failed to disclose damaging research; and profited from users sharing divisive content.

The social media giant has been accused of failing to adequately address known harmful consequences of its platform and its tools. Key amongst the criticisms is that Facebook has contributed to the 6 January storming of the Capitol, political polarization across America and even negatively affected teens’ mental health.

Read Full Article

California Struck With Massive Oil Spill from Broken Pipeline

Paul Collier October 4, 2021

A major oil spill has hit Huntington Beach California this past weekend that has stretched six miles in length. The amount of oil is estimated to be over 126,000 gallons. There are reports of hundreds of dead birds and sea life as a result of the spill and its striking of Huntington Beach itself. What will follow will be an accountability process that will touch both state and corporation alike, with factions already preparing to push narratives that will allow them to exploit the tragedy to push their factional agendas.

It is doubtful that the state, and, in California, the Democrat Party will take some degree of a hit, losing, perhaps, even more of the excerbs and rural counties than they already have, but the association with the GOP in culture is so profound when it comes to oil spills that the overall effect on the party will be negligent. However, some officials will lose their standing, whether in the form of resignations or just being rendered the new irrelevent. Regulators, first responders, will come under scrutiny.

At the national level, the spill will serve the DNC well, as, like stated above, the GOP owns this oil spill culturally, and, having little means of cultural prudoction themselves, there’s no reason this cultural construct won’t continue to be the dominant thrust in this narrative. The oil spill will be a symbol, a paradigm of the cold climate change deiner that always seeks profit over planet.

Greta Thunberg will make this a necklace around her neck, a little black obsidian drop in the form of a blade stabbing the heart of the earth, a rare green pearl. The necklace itself will be worth billions, but don’t fret such things.

Here is a range of articles covering different aspects of this emerging major story that’s sure to dominate the conversation for at least the next two days, at least, but we shall see…..

‘Catastrophic’ California oil spill kills fish, damages wetlands and closes beaches

From whnt.com
2021-10-04 13:07:22

Excerpt:

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (NewsNation Now) — A massive oil spill off the California coast left fish dead, birds covered in petroleum and wetlands contaminated with oil, in what local officials are calling an environmental catastrophe.

An estimated 126,000 gallons of heavy crude leaked into the water, and some washed up on the shores of Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said.

Crews led by the Coast Guard deployed skimmers and laid some 3,700 feet of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland, officials said. The city and state beaches at Huntington Beach were closed, and late Sunday the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said its beaches also were shuttered.

Read Full Article

126,000 Gallons Of Oil Just Spilled Along The Southern California Coast

From www.forbes.com
2021-10-03 21:44:19
Priya Shukla, Contributor
Excerpt:

A leak from an offshore rig across has caused a six-mile-wide oil slick across the Orange County coastline this past weekend, causing beaches to close and even cancelling an air show. The leak likely started on Friday, when workers detected strong odors. And, by early Sunday morning, dead fish and birds covered in oil were already washing shore.

According to Huntington Beach city officials, “The spill has significantly affected Huntington Beach, with substantial ecological impacts occurring at the beach and at the Huntington Beach Wetlands.”

The leak originated from a broken pipeline…

Read Full Article

‘Massive oil spill off California coast a potential ecologi…

From menafn.com
2021-10-04 09:09:24

Excerpt:

Los Angeles, Oct 4 (IANS) A massive oil spill off the Orange County coast in Southern California has prompted the closure of a 9-km long beachfront area.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told local KTLA news channel on Sunday that the incident was first reported a day earlier and oil was still leaking about 8.05 km off the coast of Huntington Beach from the broken pipeline, reports Xinhua news agency.

“It’s still leaking and the responsible party for this is underway right now trying to repair the leak from the pipeline,” Foley said, referring to the platform Elly, a facility sitting in federal waters off the Los Angeles County coast and processing crude oil production from two other platforms.

All these platforms are located on top of a large reservoir of crude oil known as the Beta Field, which sits in waters overseen by the US Department of the Interior.

Read Full Article

Oil spill photos show disastrous scene on Southern California beaches

From www.usatoday.com
2021-10-04 12:03:04

Excerpt:

A broken pipeline has led to an estimated 126,000 gallons of oil leaked into the Ocean waters near Orange County, prompting Southern California officials to rapidly race to contain the damage in one of the largest oil spills in recent memory.

The oil spill reached the shores of Huntington Beach late Saturday – five miles off the coast. Crews were able to remove more than 3,000 gallons of oil from the ocean off the coastline Sunday, according to Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley.

Wildlife harmed by the oil was still emerging, with dead birds and fish washing ashore. Efforts to keep the spill from affecting any more sensitive marshland was ongoing. “We’re hoping we have minimal impact, but we’re preparing for the worst,” Christian Corbo, a lieutenant at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a public statement.

Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Sunday requesting a major disaster declaration for Orange…

Read Full Article

Response time questioned in Southern California oil spill

From www.nbc15.com
2021-10-04 12:30:00

Excerpt:

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

People who live and work in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening.

But it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been spotted and a unified command established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company that operates the pipeline believed responsible for the…

Read Full Article

Volunteer joins California oil spill cleanup | News

From pantagraph.com
2021-10-04 12:53:00

Excerpt:

Volunteers worked Sunday to try to clear crude oil from a beach in Southern California, after a massive spill from a leaking pipeline.

Read Full Article

Leftism IS NOT Totalitarianism

Bill Collier October 2, 2021

There is a sense on the right that the the left’s alt-gendered rainbow definitions of marriage and family are the cause, or least the vehicles, of an emerging totalitarianism. We do not believe this is so or that the bent toward totalitarianism is limited to any idea, be it orthodoxy or unorthodox.

Let us examine the issue of the alt-culture versus our more historic cultural orthodoxy.

Let us stipulate that for many there is a strong conviction that men and women were created to be conjoined and complimentary and their lifelong matetnal bond is meant to reflect the Divine order between God and humanity. We generally beleive it is the ideal of an advanced culture that children mostly all be raised mostly by their own biological parents in connection with a larger kinship community based on shared identity and ideals.

This truth, if you see it as truth, need not censor the idea that marriage is merely a transactional and impermanent union between any .two humans who have attraction to each other and derive pleasure from each other. Those who embrace this can freely follow this. But today’s purveyors of this SEEM to have deemed themselves to be authorized to shun, shame, cancel, and punish those who not only insist on the truthfulness of historic familial orthodoxy but who dare to both live this and govern their own relationships and associations on this basis.

It is no longer the alternative marital, familial, sexuality, and now also gender concepts that wish merely to be tolerated, it is now that these ideas, or some of the loudest and most influential and powerful people advancing them, that demand that all who disagree with this “evolution” be sidelined and all voices that do not applaud this “evolution” be silenced.

If there ever seemed to be evidence that the alt-culture that defies historic orthodoxy is a lie, it is the fact so many of its most powerful advocates don’t think these alternative ideas are able to freely thrive WITHOUT silencing anything contradictory. But this is too simple: people who have also adhered to historic cultural orthodoxy have also used a heavy hand to silence and punish those who wish to test and challenge that orthodoxy.

It is less the ideas, be they orthodoxy as we might embrace it or these fantastical experimental alternatives, that are the problem, or the solution, than it is the tendency to suppress others and to create a monoculture by force. In short, totalitarianism is wildly varied, as in it may use any truth or alternative ideas, but its common thread is that culture itself must be maintained by the whip hand of a top-down hierarchical system of control.

Today’s totalitarians are loudest and most powerful on the “left”, specifically under banners like social justice, racial equality through “white shaming”, and the alt-gendered rainbow. But these ideas would be harmless to any save those who adhere to them if the only way they were advanced was through freewill participation on a strictly voluntary basis.

But totalitarian leanings are not limited to the “left”, and conflating the ideas of this alt-culture with totalitarianism is to miss the point. Embracing non-orthodox concepts of marriage and family doesn’t make one a totalitarian and embracing historic cultural orthodoxy doesn’t prevent one from acting in a totalitarian manner.

Totalitarianism, the bent toward using coercive force to advance your idea and suppress others, can use any justification, any idea, as its basis.